One of may all time favorite running books is Bob Glover's The Runner's Handbook. I also like RW Complete Book of Women's Running. The Runner's Rule book is more like a tongue in cheek approach to running. It's a fun read, but not too informative.

My HBP is due to a an Angiotensin II issue. This is a peptide that causes the muscles surrounding blood vessels to contract, thereby narrowing blood vessels leading to HBP. Unfortunately my BP does not respond to lifestyle changes per se, but that doesn't mean I am not benefiting from running. My resting heart rate runs between 40 and 45 and the headaches that I experienced on an almost daily basis have all been become non-existent. I feel better today than I did 10, even 20 years ago and while I will always have to take a Rx, I am grateful that I have been able to control it.

That helps! I wouldn't worry too much about increasing the distance of your shorter runs more than 4-5 miles (in fact if you plan on doing four runs a week, I would shoot for one of those runs to be just for time, say no more than 30 minutes and not worry about your distance...remember your body does not have an odometer so going out and running long on your non LSD days may lead to overtraining issues.

If you currently are running 7 miles for your LSD, you may want to maintain that distance for a few weeks. Cutting back will lead to detraining issues, but you can cut back every fourth week. For example, run 7 miles this week, 7.5 the following week, 8 the following week then cutting back to 6 the fourth week. The next week you can then bring it up to 8.5 and slowly add mileage only to your LSD runs, don't try to increase your distance to your shorter runs at the same time at this point in your training. You are still going to be seeing some improvement...no run, even a 10 minute run is ever wasted.

As far as particular programs, be careful of Runner's World Smart Coach...it can be a tad aggressive, especially for those running their first, but that doesn't mean you can't modify it to better match your current running status and where you hope to be in May.

Have you had a history of injury? I had some shin pain when I first got serious about increasing my mileage back in April or May, I took a week off and learned how to stretch and warm up properly and have been fine since.

How much time do you have to devote to training? I can run 3-4 days a week. 1 of those days I can do a longer run. I also do some low intensity cross training a couple days a week for about a half hour.

How old are you and do you have any health issues? (asthma, high blood pressure).

I am 36 and in good health overall. I do have some minor exercise induced asthma when I am on the treadmill which is in the basement, but only in the summer/fall when the basement gets damp. Since I love running outside I don't anticipate running inside too much once the daylight is longer. I don't get asthma attacks where my lungs close, that's why I said mild. What I get is coughing. I take a puff of an inhaler before long runs as a precautionary measure and my Dr knows I am running and has encouraged it.

I hope this is thorough enough, thanks for spending so much time on me :)

Tracy

Today I chose to be healthy

�If it is to be, it is up to me.� -William H Johnsen

�We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.�-Carlos Castenada

I have had HBP since 2004, even with losing 80 pounds and running I still have to take my anti-hypertensive...there are many causes of HBP, some of which have genetic tendencies (my case...both parents have HBP and all my siblings were diagnosed with HBP between 43 and 46).

After a more difficult week of running, possibly due to not getting enough sleep or maybe to pushing the long run mileage, I am feeling more concerned about running my half marathon this coming May. I am up to a 7 mile long run and can easily run 4 miles a couple times a week. I am planning on working on getting my shorter run distances up and backing my long run back down to a 10K until I get the short run distances to maybe 5 miles. So I'm thinking when my week is a 5/5/7 then I might go 5/5/7.5 The problem is I'm not feeling really confident at selecting my own training plan also don't feel like I know enough about many things related to the HM. I'm wondering if anyone has a really good book they can recommend for someone who has been running about 8 months and planning on doing her fast HM after just 1 year of running. My race finishes in 3 hours, I know I can do it in that time. My only goal is to finish and finish still wanting to run :)

Tracy

Today I chose to be healthy

�If it is to be, it is up to me.� -William H Johnsen

�We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.�-Carlos Castenada

SparkPeople, SparkCoach, SparkPages, SparkPoints, SparkDiet, SparkAmerica, SparkRecipes, DailySpark, and other marks are trademarks of SparkPeople, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
SPARKPEOPLE is a registered trademark of SparkPeople, Inc. in the United States, European Union, Canada, and Australia. All rights reserved.

NOTE: Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy last updated on October 25, 2013